Financial management systems are valuable tools that provide services that were previously available only through interaction with a human professional, or that were painfully attempted by oneself. Prior to the advent of financial management systems, a user (e.g., a small business owner) would be required to consult with an accountant or bookkeeper for services, and the user would be limited, and potentially inconvenienced, by the office hours during which the professional was available for consultation. Furthermore, the user might be required to gather paper copies of all relevant records and travel to the professional's physical location to relay the information to the professional to obtain the professional's assistance. Beyond the inconveniences of scheduling and travel, the user would also be at the mercy of the professional's education, skill, personality, and varying moods. All of these factors resulted in a user who was vulnerable to: human error, variations in human ability, and variations in human temperament.
A financial management system can provide benefits that human professionals are hard-pressed to provide, such as: not having limited working hours, not being geographically limited, and not being subject to human error or variations in human ability or temperament. Small business owners are typically not accountants, nor do they want to be. Small business owners typically interact with business management software out of necessity, while simply wanting to return to the task of running their business. A financial management system enables users to receive accountant-like services, without the pain points associated with traditional interaction with professionals. To provide these services, however, the financial management system can often present seemingly numerous user experience pages, forms, and/or options that may be difficult to recall, find, and/or navigate while interacting with the financial management system.
Users who have difficulty finding or navigating to information may feel fear, uncertainty, and/or doubt about what they are doing or about what they are supposed to do. The users' feelings fear, uncertainty, and/or doubt can quickly turn into frustration and a lack of desire to continue trying. Feelings of fear, uncertainty, and/or doubt are inconsistent with satisfied/happy customers, and such feelings may cause customers to seek alternative solutions, ultimately resulting in the abandonment of use of a particular financial management system. Because financial management systems are adept at saving users time while providing feature-rich business and/or personal management solutions, it is beneficial for both the users and the service provider of the financial management system to facilitate searching and navigating to information in the financial management system.
Thus, there is a longstanding technical problem related to finding and navigating information in financial management systems.